I appreciate your perspectives, exposing some of the issues of decay in today's military. But as the old axiom goes, it would be better if every complaint, were accompanied with a possible solution.
I think there is ideological warfare going on. There are people trying to communicate the idea that being excellent is wrong, and being overweight is some sort of badge of honor. We see this education too, where some teachers and professors have stopped giving out grades. People need to fight this because it leads to a social decay.
That's strange. I would have thought that physical fitness in the Army would consist of being able to carry 150 pounds of gear across a muddy battlefield, or up a hill, or across that valley.
In certain circumstances, being able to quickly use a lever to lift a jeep in order to change the tires or changing an engine.
I just assumed it also meant that you could fit your tired old body into the tank, jeep, or helicopter cockpit.
If some are fitter than others, this speaks to a hierarchy embedded within nature itself, a notion antithetical to their religion. This is why MSNBC and Time Magazine articles have described fitness as “far-right” and rooted in “white supremacy.”
Respectfully dissent on this first point.
To start, I know too many ex-jocks from my high school days who are already buried. One who made the Olympics, but died from a fall down the stairs in his house. He had put on considerable weight, landed badly, and asphyxiated. Died his mid-40s. Prior to the fall, his issues did not include a lack of natural talent.
But that real-life example is trivial. What does it take to become fit and stay fit?
Hard work. Self-discipline. Self-control. A sense of personal responsibility. Some ability to delay gratification. Some ability to follow a plan or program, then modify the same based on results and desired goals, then independently design a plan to program to better achieve one’s goals based on the evidence and research.
Little of which boils down to natural athletic talent.
None of this superficially would seem to have anything to do with genetic differences – biological “racial” differences -- among humans. As someone who taught exclusively African students for nearly five years in West Africa, I have former students who demonstrated all of the above qualities and more. Nearly all of whom now make far money than I ever did, btw. I have some amazingly successful former students from about 14 different nations in Africa.
It would seem fitness -- like other accomplishments --remains open to people willing to work for it, and to educate themselves. So itwould seem.
Unfortunately, in the USA, we have heard from National Museum of African American History & Culture that individualism, self-reliance, hard work, objectivity, progress, delayed gratification, a belief in cause and effect relationships, et cetera, are ASPECTS & ASSUMPTIONS of WHITENESS: https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1283372233730203651
Since this list includes the qualities needed for a person to take charge of their own health and well-being, it follows (if one accepts such madness) that a commitment to Fitness is a commitment to Whiteness and hence White Supremacy.
What’s the real target here?
Let me be perverse and argue that it is NOT primarily white people.
The current understanding is that you must surrender control – which most certainly includes bodily autonomy -- to the corporate-state along with Big Pharma, Big Med, Big Food, and Big Tech, to start.
People who practice self-reliance, who take responsibility for their own health and fitness,
and who largely cut Big Gov-Pharma-Med-Food et alia out of the picture – these people are threatening. Now being characterized as borderline domestic terrorists. Why?
First, these people have minimalized the role of Big Gov-Pharma-Med-Food et alia in their own lives. Second, the obvious success of these people in terms of health and fitness calls deeply into the question – rebukes – the various and often failing mandates, prescription regimens, and black-box healthcare as usual.
The target is anyone who does not conform, does not demonstrate subservience, does not reduce themselves to near-absolute dependency on government and quasi-governmental authorities.
My comments above single out one small part of a thoughtful and important post. My apologies in advance for making a mountain of this molehill.
I appreciate your perspectives, exposing some of the issues of decay in today's military. But as the old axiom goes, it would be better if every complaint, were accompanied with a possible solution.
Keep striving for what is right.
Excellent article!
"Fitness Equity" is classic. I am stealing that one.
"Even if nobody else cares about your physical fitness, you can." And should, regardless of who you are.
I am a fan of Eric Goodman's work: A better plank: https://ftstreaming.com/programs/8-pt-plank-youtube-challenge-d7b5de
I think there is ideological warfare going on. There are people trying to communicate the idea that being excellent is wrong, and being overweight is some sort of badge of honor. We see this education too, where some teachers and professors have stopped giving out grades. People need to fight this because it leads to a social decay.
That's strange. I would have thought that physical fitness in the Army would consist of being able to carry 150 pounds of gear across a muddy battlefield, or up a hill, or across that valley.
In certain circumstances, being able to quickly use a lever to lift a jeep in order to change the tires or changing an engine.
I just assumed it also meant that you could fit your tired old body into the tank, jeep, or helicopter cockpit.
Or are all those right?
🗨 the military [...] has been turned into a woke social-justice welfare program, a kind of student union/sociology department with guns.
Thought Michael Anton's amazeballs wit ↑↑ clearly belongs on this army green backdrop 😊
--
An afterthought: equity = undeserved rewards go to underserved 🤪
You write:
If some are fitter than others, this speaks to a hierarchy embedded within nature itself, a notion antithetical to their religion. This is why MSNBC and Time Magazine articles have described fitness as “far-right” and rooted in “white supremacy.”
Respectfully dissent on this first point.
To start, I know too many ex-jocks from my high school days who are already buried. One who made the Olympics, but died from a fall down the stairs in his house. He had put on considerable weight, landed badly, and asphyxiated. Died his mid-40s. Prior to the fall, his issues did not include a lack of natural talent.
But that real-life example is trivial. What does it take to become fit and stay fit?
Hard work. Self-discipline. Self-control. A sense of personal responsibility. Some ability to delay gratification. Some ability to follow a plan or program, then modify the same based on results and desired goals, then independently design a plan to program to better achieve one’s goals based on the evidence and research.
Little of which boils down to natural athletic talent.
None of this superficially would seem to have anything to do with genetic differences – biological “racial” differences -- among humans. As someone who taught exclusively African students for nearly five years in West Africa, I have former students who demonstrated all of the above qualities and more. Nearly all of whom now make far money than I ever did, btw. I have some amazingly successful former students from about 14 different nations in Africa.
It would seem fitness -- like other accomplishments --remains open to people willing to work for it, and to educate themselves. So itwould seem.
Unfortunately, in the USA, we have heard from National Museum of African American History & Culture that individualism, self-reliance, hard work, objectivity, progress, delayed gratification, a belief in cause and effect relationships, et cetera, are ASPECTS & ASSUMPTIONS of WHITENESS: https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1283372233730203651
Since this list includes the qualities needed for a person to take charge of their own health and well-being, it follows (if one accepts such madness) that a commitment to Fitness is a commitment to Whiteness and hence White Supremacy.
What’s the real target here?
Let me be perverse and argue that it is NOT primarily white people.
The current understanding is that you must surrender control – which most certainly includes bodily autonomy -- to the corporate-state along with Big Pharma, Big Med, Big Food, and Big Tech, to start.
People who practice self-reliance, who take responsibility for their own health and fitness,
and who largely cut Big Gov-Pharma-Med-Food et alia out of the picture – these people are threatening. Now being characterized as borderline domestic terrorists. Why?
First, these people have minimalized the role of Big Gov-Pharma-Med-Food et alia in their own lives. Second, the obvious success of these people in terms of health and fitness calls deeply into the question – rebukes – the various and often failing mandates, prescription regimens, and black-box healthcare as usual.
The target is anyone who does not conform, does not demonstrate subservience, does not reduce themselves to near-absolute dependency on government and quasi-governmental authorities.
My comments above single out one small part of a thoughtful and important post. My apologies in advance for making a mountain of this molehill.